This week Paramount held a press event promoting their upcoming releases for the fall, including Q&A’s with Star Trek director JJ Abrams (see report), and writers Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman (see report). Paramount Home Entertainment also gave a demo of some of the features on the Star Trek Blu-ray release. See below for first thoughts and some iPhone snaps of the navigation screens.

FIRST THOUGHTS on Star Trek 2009 Home Video Release

NavigationParamount showed off the navigation for Disk 2 of the Blu-ray set, which will be very similar to Disk 2 for the DVD set, but has some additional features. The menus were very nice with a diagram of the USS Enterprise in the background and a expanding tree style of navigation options that was very easy to use.

Star Trek Blu-ray Disk 2 Navigation

The featurettes on the Blu-ray and DVD are the same, but the Blu-ray has additional ‘branching pods’ which can be accessed while you are watching the feature (when a little logo appears), or from the main menu.

Navigation showing branching pods for ‘To Boldly Go’

Featurettes
There are a ton of new featurettes, all done in HD. We were only able to see a couple of them, but they were exquisitely produced and filled with interviews of all the major players on the film and the entire cast. One thing that was surprising was the amount of footage from The Original Series that is interspersed with the features, especially the "Casting" segment. The interviews seemed very candid and entertaining, giving good insights into life behind the scenes. For example, in opening "Boldly Go" featurette, there is a ‘branching pod’ dedicated to the "Shatner Conundrum" where the team (primarily JJ Abrams and Roberto Orci) talked openly about the controversy and about how they tried to find a way to get Shatner into the film. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Deleted ScenesThe set contains a large number of deleted scenes (both DVD and Blu-ray), and you can watch them with or without audio commentary from JJ Abrams, Bryan Burk, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof. At the event we only watched the two Klingon special features (Klingons Take over Narada and Prison Interrogation and Breakout). The Klingons looked fantastic, although the special effects for the Klingon ships surrounding the Narada were never finished. The interrogation scene is one that goes a long way in exposition as to who Nero is, and why the Klingons want his knowledge of the future so badly, but it can be seen how it might confuse a general audience who would wonder who the bad guys were.

Deleted scenes navigation

Starfleet Vessel Simulator
One of the cooler features available only on the Blu-ray is the vessel simulator. You can choose to get a close-up look of either the Enterprise or the Narada, which shows you a beautifully rendered image of the ship, based on the models from ILM. You can zoom in on various parts of the ship (phasers, torpedo launchers, bridge, etc). Some areas let you even do things like fire phasers. All the sections have additional information (like the Borg shielding on the Narada, taken from the "Countdown" comic books). These features really let you get a good look at these ships in a way you never got in the film with things moving around so much. You may even spot things you didn’t see before, like how the fins the back of the nacelles of the Enterprise lift up and glow when it goes into warp.

Bottom line
With just a few minutes of playing around with this set, it is clear that in November we have hours of fun ahead learning more about this new Star Trek movie. This could easily be the best Star Trek home video release ever.

STAR TREK DISK DETAILS

DVD:

The STAR TREK two-disc DVD is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 televisions with Dolby Digital English 5.1 Surround, French 5.1 Surround and Spanish 5.1 Surround with English, French and Spanish subtitles. Special features are as follows:

A New Vision — J.J. Abrams’ vision was not only to create a Star Trek that was a bigger, more action-packed spectacle, but also to make the spectacle feel real. Every aspect of production — from unique locations to the use of classic Hollywood camera tricks — was guided by this overall objective.

Gag Reel — Bloopers featuring the entire principal cast.

Disc 2:

Digital Copy

Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary

Spock Birth

Klingons Take Over Narada

Young Kirk, Johnny and Uncle Frank

Amanda and Sarek Argue After Spock Fights

Prison Interrogation and Breakout

Sarek Gets Amanda

Dorm Room and Kobayashi Maru (original version)

Kirk Apologizes to the Green Girl

Sarek Sees Spock

To Boldly Go — Taking on the world’s most beloved science fiction franchise was no small mission. Director J.J. Abrams, writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, producer Damon Lindelof, and executive producer Bryan Burk talk about the many challenges they faced and their strategy for success.

Casting — The producers knew their greatest task was finding the right cast to reprise these epic roles. The cast, for their part, talk about the experience of trying to capture the essence of these mythic characters. The piece concludes with a moving tribute to Leonard Nimoy.

Aliens — Designers Neville Page and Joel Harlow talk about the hurdles they faced creating new alien species, recreating the Romulans and Vulcans, and designing the terrifying creatures on Delta Vega for the new Star Trek.

Score — As a fan of the original series, composer Michael Giacchino embraced the challenge of creating new music for Star Trek while preserving the spirit of Alexander Courage’s celebrated theme.

DVD-Rom:

STAR TREK D-A-C Free Trial Game for XBOX 360

Weblink to the STAR TREK D-A-C Free Trial Game for PC

Weblink to the STAR TREK D-A-C Free Trial Game for PlayStation Network

The STAR TREK single-disc DVD is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 televisions with Dolby Digital English 5.1 Surround, French 5.1 Surround and Spanish 5.1 Surround with English, French and Spanish subtitles. The single-disc DVD includes the commentary, “A New Vision” and the gag reel.

BLU-RAY

The STAR TREK three-disc Blu-ray is presented in 1080p High Definition with English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, French 5.1 Dolby Digital and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital with English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles. Special features are as follows:

NASA News — This BD-Live feature gives viewers access to the latest NASA news about real space exploration. Learn about new mission developments and check out featured imagery from around the universe.

Disc 2:

To Boldly Go — See description above.

Branching Pods:

The Shatner Conundrum

Red Shirt Guy

The Green Girl

Trekker Alert!

Casting — See description above.

A New Vision — See description above.

Branching Pods:

Savage Pressure

Starships — Abrams and production designer Scott Chambliss were careful to pay tribute to the design of the original Enterprise, but they also wanted to make it futuristic and cool for a modern audience. This chapter focuses on the unique stories behind the creation of the film’s starships.

Branching Pods:

Warp Explained

Paint Job

Bridge Construction Accelerated

The Captain’s Chair

Button Acting 101

Shuttle Shuffle

Narada Construction Accelerated

Aliens — See description above.

Branching Pods:

The Alien Paradox

Big-Eyed Girl

Big Bro Quinto

Klingons

Drakoulias Anatomy 101

Planets — From the frozen landscape of Delta Vega to the desert plains of Vulcan, Scott Chambliss and the art department had a number of radically different planets to create. Abrams’ desire to shoot on real locations whenever possible led the production team to a number of strange and surprising locations.

Branching Pods:

Extra Business

Confidentiality

Props and Costumes — Property master Russell Bobbitt had the unique challenge of designing props that were both true to the original series and pertinent to today’s technology. Likewise, costume designer Michael Kaplan talks about how he designed costumes that paid homage to what came before yet were relevant and timeless.

Branching Pods:

Klingon Wardrobe

Ben Burtt and the Sounds of Star Trek — When famed sound designer Ben Burtt was hired to create sounds for the first Star Wars film, he took his inspiration from the original “Star Trek” series. Burtt jumped at the opportunity to pay tribute to the sounds that sparked his career with the sounds he created for the new Star Trek.

Comments

I’m rather annoyed how some of the more interesting features I’d like to see (like the starships featurette) are only on the Blu-Ray and not on the 2 disc DVD. I don’t have Blu-Ray yet because I and my family haven’t upgraded to HDTV yet (it is expensive). I will definitely be getting the 2 disc DVD, but I wish they put some more of those extra features on that as well. There is no reason aside from the obvious marketing for blu-ray that those couldn’t be put on the 2 disc.

@#7 – I was watching my dvd of Serenity this morning, and it’s picture quality was not even close to a blu-ray copy I’ve seen, and I even had up-scaling and smoothing on… and I assume that makes it better and not worse. So now I’m convinced I have to buy it on blu-ray…

The Special Edition DVDs were pretty extensive when it came to bonus features. However, some of the features, such as “Warp Explained” seem to be there to simply explain “treknology” to new fans who are buying Star Trek for the first time.

I’ve been looking at screencaps over at TrekCore between the Blu-Ray and DVD versions of the movies that they’ve done that for, and while I do notice an increase in quality, it’s not so much so that I’m in a big hurry to upgrade to Blu-Ray or to double dip once I do (which I’m sure everyone will have to eventually). I simply prefer DVD and so far I haven’t seen much to change my mind.

I won’t be buying this horrible excuse for a “Star Trek” movie on Blu-
Ray or DVD, but I did find a use for that horrible looking peice of crap Playmates’ so called ‘Enterprise’ toy!
If you’re a modeler, you can remove the lihgting assembly (be sure to disconnect that awful sound board!) and use it to light your Pegasus Hobbies’ Martian War Machine from “War of the Worlds!”
It’ll save you about 40 bucks and then you can dispose of that “Ugly Enterprise” without any guilt!

No 1, Hd Tvs are getting cheaper and cheaper everyday especially now that we are getting into the holiday season. heck they had a 27 inch samsung HDTV for 279.99 yesterday at my local target.
and you can pick up a entry level bluray player at walmart in the 99 to 129 range right now.

so iam sorry but the to expensive excuse doesnt work anymore.
and its funny the same people complaining about bluray haveing more bonus features over dvd are the people who drug there feet buying into dvd when it came out, and complained that dad featurettes that were impossible to do on vhs.

The nav screens for the Blu-ray look awesome. Love the branching-out pod menus and the 3D Enterprise. Let me guess, though, the nav screens for the DVD will consist of a static 2D pic of the Enterprise with menu items that can be highlighted. I sure hope the folks at Paramount didn’t neglect the DVD menus to focus more on Blu-ray menus which a significantly fewer number of people will see or use.

I’m still not sold on Blu-ray. Personally, I find the change in picture annoying (I want to watch a movie, not a soap opera or televised play), while the change in audio quality is barely noticeable. And I sure as hell don’t want to spend two hours seeing pores, make-up seams, and stunt wires that were never meant to be seen. And let’s not forget the extra dough I’d have to shell out for an HD TV and for the movies. Yah, definitely not worth it… yet.

If you can’t see an improvement in quality between Blu-ray and DVD, then your TV and player settings are probably wrong!

In the cinema, it’s likely you will see skin pores and so on. It’s because people had the appalling quality of VHS for years, then got used to heavily-compressed DVD in the last decade, where all the grain and a lot of the extra detail had to be removed in order to squeeze the image on to an 8(-ish)GB dual-layer disc, that they think something is ‘wrong’ with the image.

Film naturally has grain; in the cinema, you see sweat, skin pores and (yes) sometimes make-up seams and wires.

DVD is unnaturally clean looking. Personally, I love the more film-like image Blu-ray provides. Then again, shows like Star Trek, which were meant to be screened on small TVs can suffer a bit. Had there been time, make-up seams, zippers, obvious wirework and so on should have been dealt with by the restoration team.

One of the worst stunt-double issues was in The Enemy Within. They really should have CG overlaid Shatner’s face over the double’s in that scene in Engineering!

Really looking forward to the new movie on Blu-ray. First, though, I’ve got Trick ‘R Treat on its way over from Amazon USA: a perfect Hallowe’en treat!

Oh, and DVDs when they were the new thing, had lots of extra content compared with the VHSes. Really, Blu-ray using its extra capacity of more features shouldn’t be a surprise. I hear that next year Paramount are going to start issuing their Blu-rays about six weeks in advance of the DVDs: a similar policy to the one when DVD began to take over from VHS.

But in time you will be able to. Just as CRT televisions are ceasing to be sold, in time people will simply replace an old DVD player with a Blu-ray player.

My first DVD player in 1999 cost me £300 with Contact, Lethal Weapon 4 and US Marshals thrown in for free. My Sony Blu-ray player cost me £150 with the Spider-Man Trilogy chucked in for free. Blu-ray discs sell for similar to what DVDS did a decade ago. DVDs are now selling ridiculously cheaply, as VHSes did when they were on the wane. Realistically, the prices are a lot lower now than they were then!

Funny, when Blue-ray and HD first came on the scene, I heard HD was much better for clarity and detail in the quality of the picture. Why did Blue-ray win the war? It wasn’t because of being able to hold more data on a disc, was it? Who cares about that??!!

I just purchased the Blu Ray version of the Wrath of Khan, looking forward in getting Star Trek 2009 also. HDTVs are very inexpensive and pretty much standard these days, you can really get one for under $700 if you looked around and the PS3 slim is only $299. Perhaps this makes a good xmas or boxing day gift for you?

I wished JJ had kept everything into the movie, it would have been a lot more epic. I can’t wait!

I still am shaking my head and wondering WHY Paramount couldn’t have added the tv spots and movie trailers? WTF? Who the hell cares about a DAC copy in pc and mac…not all of us play games…..or care about limited trial copies! Bluray holds 6 times more than HD ever did, and no trailers????????????????? You’d have thought this was a given…epecially since STTMP had numerous tv spots and LONG trailers, and they managed to get them ALL on standard dvd!!!!!!!!!! Again, WTF?! I’d have traded this over the pathetic and BORING BD NASA news crap hands down!

Both will soon be eclipsed by people’s desire to simply download the movies. Blu-Ray still lags behind in market share, despite having “beat” HD-DVD in the format wars.

However, Sony was smart (again). In the ’70s, when BetaMax began flopping like a suffocating fish, they repurposed the technology and created BetaCam – a news-gathering and video production tape format that is still around today. They’ve done the same thing with Blu-Ray, but they did it at the beginning. They turned the technology around, did a little fiddling with the discs (putting them in cartridges) and call the new file-based technology XDCAM.

So even without a huge share of the market, Sony has found a way to make money off the format. The same cannot be said of Toshiba.

@28 – My daughter recently bought a 26″ Sanyo 720P HDTV at Conn’s for about $250. 19″ 720P sets (like the Insignia brand from Best Buy) retail for less than $200 (in some cases, less than $150). They all have HDMI inputs, component HD, and antenna hook-ups. And Blu-Ray players, as has been reported here before, are continuing to come down in price (a few months ago, Walmart had a Magnavox for less than $100). Granted, that’s not a pittance on a student’s income (or lack of it), but it does point up the fact that these prices are coming down as demand goes up.

That said, you’re assuming that a lot of countries have the infrastructure to handle mass downloading of movies and that there are still plenty of people who like a physical copy of things they’ve bought.

I can’t see much replacing Blu-ray now in terms of physical acquisition of films, as anything higher quality is wasted on most people as they simply don’t have room for 50″+ TVs.

There’s a section of freaky types who had a thing about HD DVD, who are desperate for Blu-ray to fail and slap it down every chance they get. Blu-ray’s more of a slow-burner as people will take it on as they replace SD CRT TVs with HD-Ready and Full-HD TVs.

Personally, I have no desire to download films. I keep my DVDs in softcover albums storing 250 discs and I’m reasonably selective about Blu-rays. I think there will always be a market of a physical purchase of items, just as people still buy CDs (and hopefully Blu-ray Audio in time) alongside low quality MP3 downloads.

The UK, for example, doesn’t have the sort of fibre-optic networks to handle mass downloading of movies and neither do many countries, including large portions of the USA. Neither are a lot of countries likely to any time soon.

When I first had DVD in 1999, it had been around for a couple of years and it wasn’t until about 2001 that the DVDs really started to push VHS off the shelves. And that was with an SD-ready system that had only fought a momentary format war with DIVX.

HD is steadily coming in in a lot of countries and as more people replace their TVs, more people will look to HD disc formats, Sky HD and so on.

That everyone will start downloading films en-masse in a couple of years is a bit of a myth.

I’m willing to bet that, in two years, finding a standalone DVD player will be as easy as finding a VHS VCR. With Blu-Ray machines down at $100, there is simply no need to NOT have Blu-Ray if you are shopping for a player.

One thing that has happened is that Blu-Ray has failed to spark ‘replacement fever’ like DVD’s did over tape, and overall disc sales are weak. Many people are satisfied with their upconverted DVDs in hi-def, even if they are full-screen titles incorrectly fattened for a widescreen TV.

if expense is your issue, pace youself. get the player so you can watch your 3disk set, then get the high def tv when u can afford it. the pictue wont b high def d what u can when u can if u really want to the 3 disk.

Could I trade the digital copy on disk 2 of the DVD for the Starship Simulator? I don’t have an ipod or anything so I’m never going to get into this digital copy fad.

I know I could shell out the hundred bucks now for a basic blu-ray at Wal-Mart to get all the features, but I’d rather not have to to get all the cool features. And I’d really not have to move to Germany or Australia to get that replica Enterprise DVD case that they’re getting the 2-disk DVD in!

Honestly, if anybody is thinking about switching to HD it really is worth it. I cheated and just got a Sony Laptop with BluRay ( yay, business expense tax right-off ) and it’s just a HDMI or VGA cable into the TV. Watching 2001 or The Thing really makes the difference and another great first blu-ray pickup was Planet Earth ( that even convinced the wife it was worth it ).

#55 Just note I think bluray players will be down in the $99 by Xmas which may be worth hanging on for ( the lasers are coming down in price as there is more production) . The PS3 @ 299 really isn’t bad for the price, but the best reviews seems come for the Samsungs. Again, the laptop option isn’t bad if your thinking of it.

Yeah, I’m going to buckle and get the BR player. There is a discount outlet store in our area that sells the returns from Costco at about 1/2 what they are new. If you look around you can get a top of the line Sony player for $119. Most of them haven’t even been hooked up to a TV, just taken out of the box by a home consumer who couldn’t figure out how to hook it up or had the wrong cables.

This place is great right after the Super Bowl. Lot’s of TV’s. There is a 50″ plasma there (actually, several) for about $1200. And if you can deal with the rear projection variety, they have 63″ HD model for $750!

I don’t think dvd’s will disapperear anytime soon. Many people will be ok with regular dvd’s.

Blu-ray sales will continue to grow and will make up the majority of sales sometime within the next five years or so as the economy recovers and more people upgrade to high-def tv’s.

Downloads will also play into mix sometime soon. The problem with downloads is that they can’t come close to matching Blu-ray quality at the moment.

I think Blu-ray’s could very well be nothing, but a niche market for people who really care about getting the best possible quality picture. Only time will tell.

I can’t say enough good things about the Blu-ray format. I have a high end Sony high def tv. Combined with my Blu-ray player it gives as close to a theatrical presentation as you will ever get.

Old films like “The Godfather” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” actually look like films rather than tv movies on Blu-ray. Their grain content comes through and the films look sharper than ever. New films look absolutely flawless and watching TOS on Blu-ray is like watching the series for the first time. The image quality is significantly better than dvd.

Blu-Ray rocks I wish everyone could have it and a HDTV. Star Trek is just one of those things that you really want to see all the details especially of the ships. I’m disapointed they didn’t add the U.S.S. Kelvin to thier Starfleet Vessel simulator. Or some of those hard to see fleet vessels which looked awesome but you really couldn’t quite see. But it being blu-ray maybe they’ll add stuff via BD-Live.

Harry, I bought an HD-DVD player too. Huge bulky thing, because PARAMOUNT ANNOUNCED THAT TREK WOULD BE EXCLUSIVELY IN THAT FORMAT.

Pioneer Elite products are generally superlative. I have two of their DVD players (one chipped for multi-region), and they are solid with a bit of heft (fewer vibrations = better sound). They tend to go for the ‘piano black’ facings, so it depends on your decor.

I think, at this point, the format itself is impervious to the technical specs of the machine. Unless you’re super-anal about CD sound (in which case, you should have a separate CD player), any of the big names will probably perform fine.

Hmmmmmmmmm,,,though every reviewer and listing has omited the fact the BD HAS trailers included……..I just noticed it in fact DOES..according to the top page menu…it’s there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can finally be 100% excited about this Bluray release! My Toshiba HD player works fine..plays regular dvd’s fine, and just watched a title last night! I now have a multi-region player(standard dvd), 5 disc standard dvd player , HD & BD player. Soon to have a VHS/DVD player/burner machine to transfer my vhs tapes over to dvd.

Firstly, downloading. Folks who think downloading will take over are ignoring a few facts. Many homes do not have the Internet bandwidth to conduct such downloads.

If you view “HD” downloads next to a 1080p signal from BluRay, you’ll notice a massive difference. “HD” downloads simply don’t have the quality. Plus, you don’t get all the extras, like commentaries and such, which you can’t discount the value of.

People will still want a physical product. I know many movie aficionados who have no desire to own a downloaded file. They want a product they can see and touch.

Now… As to Sony being so brilliant, they didn’t repurpose Betamax as Betacam. Betacam was introduced 7 years after Betamax. While Betamax was still on the market. Although there is a superficial similarity between Betamax and Betacam in that they use the same tape cassette, they are really quite different formats.

From Wiki: Betamax records relatively low resolution composite video using a heterodyne color recording system and only two recording heads, while Betacam uses four heads to record in component format, at a much higher linear tape speed, resulting in much higher video and audio quality. A typical L-750 length Betamax cassette that yielded about 3 hours of recording time on a Betamax VCR at its B-II speed, only provided 30 minutes record time on a Betacam VCR or camcorder.

Besides, Betamax failed due to bad marketing and Sony’s shear stubbornness to control the market with a self-created “industry standard”, (like the older u-matic) that was more expensive to make and sell than JVC’s competing product. In many ways, Beta WAS superior… but Sony screwed up.

But to compare the Beta/VHS war to BD/Download/DVD is just wrong. Two entirely different situations.

I, for one, am happy that BD won the HD format war. Had HDDVD won, we’d all be reliant on Microsoft codecs. Imagine the horror. :)

First #18) Lord Ravenwood must be a Masochist, He appears to hate any thing Trek, but he keeps coming back to this Star Trek orientated site. How much you want to bet he has a Mirror-Mirror pain booth for when he gets to happy with himself.

Second #55) Dr. Image, in selecting a BR player, do you have a high speed internet, if so then you can use BR Live to have a chat channel with other BR users. Get hardware updates and other hiden content, and even DL to view some SD not HD movies (this feature is also on the new Dish 9700 1 Terabyte Storage boxes). If you want any of those features get a BR player with a Ethernet jack. Some can even stream video (the Dish 9700 series can also do that)

As for HDTV I just got a e-mail from TigerDirect.com for a 73″ DLP 1080p set for under $1600, and I’ve see 37″ 720p LCD’s for $550 and 1080p ones for $100 more. And they have 65″ 1080p DLP’s for the same price I bought my 42″ 720p DLP for in 2006. But I like the 1.2″ thick 56″ LCD for 2 grand.

74 – i view Countdown to be as much canon as the Animatrix is to the matrix films or the Riddick anime is to the Pitch Black films

in fact it wouldve been great if they had made CD as a 50 minute anime instead of a comicbook (getting the voices of the TNG cast, Nimoy, Bana etc – kind of an Animated last TNG film) and had it on the dvd

55. I have the Samsung BR home theater with a 61″ Samsung DLP LED TV. It shows a beautiful picture and with Netflixs, I can stream movies without even having a disk. They are not in BR format when you stream but still look pretty darn good. I am a biased fan of Samsung (TV, Phone, BR, Computer Monitor) so don’t let persuade you….lol…

I’ve got a Blu-Ray player after long last, can’t justify the expense of replacing movies that I already have though… to be quite honest, from where I view the new TV, normal DVDs don’t look all that bad.

VHS RULES,ITS STILL THE BEST QUALITY PICTURE,BETTER THAN BLUE RAY.Just kidding with that of course.But im still sticking with DVDs for now,after I make the transition to blue ray,and buy all the Star trek movies again thinking they will be preserved for ever,Im sure they will have something else to grab our money,and blu ray players will be found at dollar stores across America

Ok I found a used ps3 with support to play my ps2 games and ordered it….Looking at hd tvs there are some in the 250-500 range but they are all 720p the cheapest 1080p i found was almost six hundred…soooo those in the know..for a bedroom and a ps3 is 720p good enuf? or should we only buy a minimum of 1080p?

But for now I should be able to play blu ray movies on my regular tv with regular outputs although of course it wont be high def….

so anyone know which brands of hdtv are best and cheapest at same time? Plasma??Lcd only? Does lcd require the fast mhz speed?

For those of you who haven’t upgraded, I have to say that usually I am resistant to these sorts of things (re-buying what I already have), but the TOS Blu-Ray sets are nothing short of astounding and a quantum leap over the original DVD sets so you are definitely getting something for your money.

I imagine as the holidays approach that many Blu-Ray player deals will surface…I expect many players to go below $100 even.

Hopefully, more folks will then be able to upgrade and enjoy the BD discs for Trek (and other movies, too).

I own a BD player with BD live capabilities. I have been able to uitilize games, trivia, info. on actors, etc. BUT..my brand new Wizard of Oz Warner Bros…….title…once and only once have I been able to download and play a trailer! My system tells me the network signal is poor, locks up and I can’t use the remote or manually shut it off! It goes to black screen.
I have to unplug and reset.
I even added a 8Meg flashdrive to hold more info./storage. So even though I have cable speed link….through a lesser known smaller cable co.,….my experience w/ BD has been limited or less than hoped for.
Who knows if the Trek NASA will even function.

Bluray has so much better image quality, it’s gorgeous, but the implementation with all it’s DRM crap is so extremely bad, I won’t buy a single disk until this behavior will be resolved or worked around properly.

Sorry Bluray industry, you already lost me as a potential customer because of this DRM crap.

DLP is the best bang for your buck. You get the biggest screen and a picture just as good as Plasma. Drawback is size. They are a bit bulkier 9not nearly as bulky as old rear projection CRTs) than LCD and plasma and can not be hung on a wall. I don’t care about a thicker setup though and have a Diamond mitsu DLP 73″ in the livingroom and a Diamond DLP 65″ in my bedroom. They just came out with an 82″ if you want to have a wall. Personally I prefer the Mitsu’s for picture quality and bang for the price.

People are still buying VHS tapes for goodness sake! DVDs aren’t going to disappear any time soon.

Also, if you claim you can’t tell the difference between Bluray HD and standard definition then you simply have never seen true HD. Most HDTV’s in stores are connected to standard def signals, so you can’t go by that. The difference is plain to anyone with working peepers.

Blu-Ray can hold up to 50 gigs. Thats why it has more features. quit complaining. People are paying MORE money for the blu-ray, which mean they paid a lot of money for a blu-ray player and an HDTV. Sorry, but higher paying customers always deserve more for their money.
My advice is to just go buy a PS3. only $299 and then you can easily play that free game it comes with

It all sounds so great and I’m looking forward to purchasing it on BR. I just wish there was an option to play the movie with the deleted scenes placed in the proper order instead of watching them all bulked together at the end of the movie.

[…] Star Trek reboot blu ray menus and features Just had this link posted on my facebook page, I thought it looked very good. Bring on Novembe this is one of my most anticipated releases this year. First Impressions Of Star Trek Movie Blu-Ray (+ Navigation Screenshots) | TrekMovie.com […]

If I recall, the first Xmen movie came out months later with a 1.5, or 2.5 ed. and you could went an icon came on, add a scene that was a deleted scene and it played…not quite adding it into a seamless play but not bad….and this was old dvd standard technology!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why would anyone with half a brain buy a video game console to watch movies?????????? First of all, you’re going to burn out your console, secondly, if you want the best selection of games and exclusives (the reason for owning a video game console) then Xbox 360 has the best of both on the market. I own a xbox360 for games, and a blu ray player to watch movies. Eventually, direct digital downloads are going to replace everything anyways.

I am excited about this new Movie coming out soon, and i plan to buy the BluRay and DVD sets. I upgraded to HDTV a few months back and got a BluRay player at the same time. These were as cheap as what i paid for my analog TV and my DVD player about 9 years ago, so i went for it. I still have my old TV and DVD player setup to play my different Star Trek series DVDs because they look better on it, but my Bluray Star Trek Movies look outstanding, with a noticable improvement. Star Trek The Motion Picture looked the best on BluRay i thought. Its worth the money to upgrade, because HDTV channels look so much better than regular analog, well worth the cost and as a few others have said, the cost is not like it once was, it is very affordable now. You will be happy with it. I just cant wait to get this movie now, especially on the BluRay!!!

The deleted scenes on Blu-ray are listed in the Blu-ray features above, mentioned in the article and displayed on the picture, Not sure what else we can do. They have also been mentioned in multiple articles here before.

The PS3 is perfect if you do not have a blu ray player and have not purchased a next gen console. I have held off for the longest time before upgrading from my ps2. When it was on sale for 299, I couldn’t resist, it was perfect timing to get a new game console and also a blu ray player at the same time. I enjoy the blue tooth wireless controllers, online broadband capability and free online playstation network, as the ad says, it does everything. The 360 does not have free gaming network, blue tooth technology, blue ray and true 1080p HDTV through blue ray movies. Also mentioned was the higher fail rate, I have to go with the PS3 if it came down to functionality and price.

Wrath of Khan blue ray on my ps3 was amazing, the color, grain, quality was like I watched it at a theatre in 1982. The trailer was also included with commentary, highly recommended. They also included the star trek 2009 trailer, and that was hot also.

#84

There is minor noticeable difference between 720p and 1080p, go for 1080p as it is the highest resolution and will serve you for years to come. Most new games/movies are 1080p.

I’m rather annoyed how some of the more interesting features I’d like to see (like the starships featurette) are only on the Blu-Ray and not on the 2 disc DVD. I don’t have Blu-Ray yet because I and my family haven’t upgraded to HDTV yet (it is expensive). I will definitely be getting the 2 disc DVD, but I wish they put some more of those extra features on that as well. There is no reason aside from the obvious marketing for blu-ray that those couldn’t be put on the 2 disc.
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I am sure JJ will release a special directors cut with all the extended scenes put back in with all the special effects once Star Trek 2011 is out in the theatres/available for purchase as a trilogy special box set. I am thinking there will be many more versions due out sometime in the future. I wish they would release it one time and get it over with, with all the scenes intact, so no need to buy 3 versions of the same movie with extended this or that.

#95 – The real question is why would anyone with half a brain not buy a PS3 as their BluRay player.

The PS3 is actually one of the better BluRay players available today. The console’s Cell processor means that discs load quickly and it can easily handle the overly complicated and over-engineered menus that often bog down other players. It comes with built-in 802.11/g wireless support so if you have wireless internet in your house or live near a wifi hotspot, firmware upgrades are a snap and practically transparent. The new PS3 Slim model even has an IR port so it will support universal remotes like those made by Logitech. And of course picture and sound quality are outstanding. My PS3 is 2 1/2 years old and it has had a lot of BluRays thrown at it. About the only gripe with the console is a scarcity of good exclusive titles, but I have my Xbox 360 for that :)

As for digital downloads, it will be years before the infrastructure is in place to support true uncompressed 1080p video and TrueHD audio downloads at acceptable speeds for the average consumer. For videophiles a dedicated BluRay player is the way to go for the foreseeable future.

I honestly think HDTV and BluRay both suck. I’ve seen them in “action” and I feel that they make everything look too blurry (especially during fast pans). The attempt is made to make everything look SO real that it goes overboard and starts to look fake and the colors are much too vibrant compared to real life. It’s not like any human’s eyes actually SEE the world in a quality akin to high definition so why should our TVs try to show it that way?

I’m starting to think it’s a mob mentality. “Everyone says it’s so great, so it must be!”

To Mr Duncan, I’d love a Klingon restored FAN disk of ST:TM, last week I finished getting Trials & Tribulations. I would have added a bit more of the TOS bar fight seances to the DSN version, and a bit more of the TOS why there are stopping at Space Station K7. But I see why they may have did the cuts were they did. Due to the editing of video and the matching of audio, but a good audio editor can cure much of those problems.

It looks like Pauley79 uses a MAC. But still great effects of mixing TOS with DSN, and the improved looks of Space Station K7 by Paramount.

I’d add a thousand yes votes for someone to do ST:TM but I do not work for ACORN or even give them money. And I still believe one vote for one person,not 53 votes like the DC guy could have done.

I can’t wait to get this, but I sure hope I don’t have to watch the movie to get to the “pods”. I love behind the scenes special features, but I don’t want to have to wait on icons to pop up during a scene to access them.

#95 I got a ps3 cuz i have lots of ps2 games an everyone here that has a ps3 loves it for games and bluray and they all told me its fine for a blu ray-hell I am still using my ps2 for our main dvd player no problems for many years…if sony did not want you to play dvds or blu rays on it they wouldnt have made it possible to do so ala nintendo wii etc….so guess I am just a half brained idiot? eheheh

TV & Blu-ray were set up fine (trust me, my friend’s good with these things). I’m not saying I don’t notice a difference. I’m saying I’m not fond of the difference with the picture, and the sound difference is negligible at best. Then again, my ears aren’t the best to go by. But I just don’t care for what it does to the picture, the camera pans, etc., particularly in regards to older movies and TV shows.

For those with motion blur problems, this is caused by the image refresh rate, it use to be with LCD response time when LCD first hit the TV market.

The problem for me is Plasma, and the glass plasma tubes at high altatudes 4500ft+ and I live in the Mile Hi city (that’s 5280ft if you do not know) And they are still working to get the tubes to stop leaking the gas used for plasma, it’s gertting better now reported at 95% but I want 100%. I have a DLP and those are better than plasma and less costly than LCD. My Samsung set was one of the first LED lit ones, it’s case was made and marked for Xeon lamps that last about 15,000 hours.

If your HDTV does not do 120fps you may get motion blur. And if your unlucky first check for software updates if there is none then you’ve learned that technology costs money. And buying high-tech stuff enters you into the playing field of technology, not everyone wins, some may lose, but either way technology progresses.

My toss up is get a PS3 or Samsung BR player or go for a Western Digital media player that plays movies from 2 USB Hard disks upto 4 Terabyte big and in 1080p via a HDMI cable.

The human eye can see comparatively higher resolution than the 1080 lines of High Definition/Blu-ray .
As for the color, where have you ‘seen it in action’? If its been in a store, know that display models in store are generally set to a god-awful ‘vibrant’ mode which terribly over-saturates the image and makes it look cartooney. I dont understand why they do this, but apparently they think it will attract customers. When set up correctly, the color is incredibly life-like and as close to what the director intended as possible.

gee lord ravenwood itbis one of my fave trek movies–my Ilia probe hallmark ornament made me wanna see tmp again-30 yr anniversary-wow—the directors edition especially-aside from jjs reboot is the grandest looking and most cosmic of all the movies–and the jerry goldsmith music-his best since logans run(another fave of mine) is majedtic and goes beautifully with the epic scope–spock realizing thru vger that pure logic is not the perfection it seemed to be and to shed a tear for vger, ahh spocks evolving almost mirroring vgers-the new life form emerging from man and woman and love and machines–deeper more heady stuff than say terminators machine attaining life–the beautiful shots of the best enterprise —i know many disagree but i find a lot to love about tmp! happt anniversary-

If they had the klingon stuff in the film, the start would have had to becompletely re-arranged. They couldn’t go from young kirk in a car back to just before he’d been born, and having the shuttles flying away from the narada to the logo and back to a narada shot would have been weird.

Yeah. The only way it could be read perhaps is that Nero looks no different 25 years later and seems to be waking up in the first shot of him, which maybe means he spent 25 years in suspended animation.

Like I say, I wonder if there’ll be an extended edition released to tie in with the next movie!

Well I got my used ps3 today and even connected using the standard rca video and audio jacks and a regular tv and vcr I can play ps3 games ps2 games and watch blu ray dvds….I just now finally watched the Farewell to the Star Trek Experience on teh star trek evolutions disk on the 4 tng movie blu ray set….it was wonderful….Now next on my list is to try to install a netgear wireless so I can get online using the ps3 We have one of those digital transceivers from comcast that give us digital tv, and high speed cable internet and phone service as well….anyone know if I will have any problems just installing the netgear rangemax wireless router?? it says to unplug the modem but its not really a modem and if I unplug it will temp lose cable and phone hahaah oh welll maybe I will try to install it later this week…

A fine eye can see upto 1250 lines when the image is still and around 650 when it is in motion of 30fps. If interlased then the resolution is about half because the frame rate is 15 not 30 per second. That is why you see plenty of stair stepping with Tube TV’s.

When UHD TV comes from Japan around 2020 you’ll have to feed the industry again. At that resolution your eye may not even see lines on still pics. The UHD video format is 4x the data and 4096×20?? (the ?? can be 1920 or 2025 or 2160 depends on the lab) And on one 37″ picture tube (actually array since tubes are history) it is said the images look as good as 35mm photos. The military has has this res sensors since the mid 90’s, how do you think they can almost read your newspaper as you sit in central park in NY while they are in space. And with fractal scaling software they can read 99% of common typeset stuff, hand written is much harder.

Science shows us how marvelous the human visual system. But even at that, it is far from perfect. For one, it tends to fill in the blanks. This is why many stage magic illusions work so well with nary as complicated a setup as people imagine, and DNA evidence shows eyewitness accounts not to be as reliable as most people think. Here’s the latest on what people are perceiving when they look at HD,